BY KRISTIN BEUSCHER
OF NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
ALPINE, N.J.—The first signs of spring were emerging in Alpine when this photo was taken at Huyler’s Landing along the Palisades in early April 1968. The same photograph would be impossible to get today: the structure, which once stood above the Hudson River as a relic of a different time, is no longer there.
The building shown was an old dock house from around 1750. It stood at Huyler’s Landing, a point on the Palisades cliffs named for the family that owned the land. It was located about a mile south of the present-day Alpine Boat Basin.
From this location, a route called Old Huyler Dock Road was an important artery between the Palisades and the farmland of Bergen County. For years before the railroad came through in 1859, wagons transported produce from area farmers down Old Huyler Dock Road to boats bound for New York, where it was sold.
In November of 1776, British troops led by Gen. Charles Cornwallis sailed up the Hudson River and docked at Huyler’s Landing (then called Lower Closter) to make their ascent up the Palisades. They were en route to Fort Lee, where they intended to attack forces under the command of Gen. George Washington and crush the Continental revolt. The Americans, alerted in advance, were able to retreat before the British could reach them.
In the succeeding years, the dock house was used at various times as a trading port, a tavern and a store.
In the 1930s the local Boy Scouts converted the historic dock house into a nature museum. Later the structure was abandoned, boarded up, and fell to ruin. It was finally destroyed in a fire in 1973.
DID YOU KNOW? The Palisades Interstate Park offers the “Huyler’s Landing History Hike,” a moderate 5-mile trek that visits the old jetty for Huyler’s Landing and some other historical spots. Find more information at www.njpalisades.org/hiking.html.